How to Treat Candidates: The Importance of a Customer-Centric Approach in Recruitment
If a new customer entered your store and was keen on buying something, you would never dream of ignoring them. This is similar to how to treat candidates who express interest in your company.
Even if they’re just browsing, you wouldn’t let them leave without trying to make a good impression on them. You’d try and win them over for next time they are looking to buy. You’d respect and thank them for thinking about you, much like how to treat your customers, and share knowledge with them about products you have, so that they leave as better-informed consumers. Maybe they’ll remember you the next time they have a purchase to make.
This same philosophy needs to apply to candidates who apply for jobs at your organisation. It’s essential to treat candidates like customers.
Yet, everyday we don’t … and it’s damaging. It’s damaging to both brands and to the people who apply to them.
You need to treat your candidates as you do your customers. Give them an interview experience that makes them feel comfortable, familiar, and convenient. It should be fast and should dignify the effort they have made in applying. Go further and give them feedback and insights about their strengths and weaknesses that they can use when looking at other jobs. By doing so, they’ll likely remember you in the future and recommend you to their friends.
What Qantas did right
As Michael Eizenberg, Head of Qantas Group Talent, Digital & Analytics told us: “We care deeply about two things when it comes to hiring. Firstly, diversity and inclusivity, and secondly the experience of everyone who comes into contact with the Qantas brand. Our goal is to treat every candidate like we would a customer.”
Qantas metrics prove the value of the approach to treat candidates as customers.
- Application completion is at 93%, a phenomenal outcome. (Completion rate of the video interview previously used was 50%.)
- 98% of candidates report the feedback they are provided is helpful and accurate.
What to look out for
The idea of creating positive candidate experiences is not new, but the global talent shortage has empowered candidates in a way that companies are no longer the ones wielding the power.
You’re not the only one choosing. Candidates are. They assess you at every step of the recruitment process, similar to how to treat your customers.
We need to treat candidates not just as ‘prospective employees’, but also as “prospective employers”. We should roll out the red carpet and listen to their needs from the first moment they interact with us.
We’ve heard about the great resignation across the globe as people have reassessed their lives and decided they want more from their job than just a steady paycheck.
People looking for jobs not only have more choices, but they also possess more information about companies thanks to technology like Glassdoor. They will likely do research on your company before they apply.
Much like shopping has changed the way people buy things, making online comparisons and reading reviews, the internet has created a similar opportunity for job seekers who are looking for the best place to work.
Organisations need to not only consciously articulate and promote the value they offer and why people should consider working for them – they actually have to prove it through their recruitment process.
The candidate is a consumer of your “product” (your workplace), or at least you should think of them that way. This mirrors the sentiment that you should treat candidates like customers.
This means making people feel valued by your company even before they work there.
You can read how Qantas’ approach to treat candidates as customers has improved the quality and retention on their candidates here.
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